A man told a Grand Court jury of the moments before he was allegedly shot by his son-in-law, all over a heated dispute about the correct way to feed a young child a mango.
The victim, whose name the Cayman Compass is not releasing, told the jury of five women and two men that he and the defendant, Luisto Eusebio Hernandez, had lived in the same premises off Oakland Drive, George Town for six years without incident, prior to the evening of 20 April 2022.
“I saw that he was feeding his youngest child a mango, and I told him that it was too big for the child and he should cut it up into smaller pieces,” said the complainant. “He told me to ‘F’ off’ and not to say anything to him, and that if I didn’t leave him alone, he would corn my skin.”
He explained to the jury that the term “corn my skin” was a slang term meaning to get shot.
“I got angry and threw a beer bottle at him and it broke, and the glass got in his daughter’s eye,” he said. “Then he left the yard, got in his car and drove away.”
According to the complainant, a few minutes later he heard someone shout out the defendant’s name, causing him to look up and see that Hernandez was allegedly armed with a gun.
“When I saw him with the gun, I ducked behind the bar wall, and looked over the top a couple times and could see him coming,” he explained.
The jury was told by the complainant that the walls of the small bar were made out of plywood reaching two-thirds up the wall, with the remaining one-third screened off with a black transparent mesh.
“Someone was by the door telling him ‘Don’t do it; Don’t do it,’ but he stuck his hand around them with the gun,” he said. “Then he walked away, pointed back and fired the first shot, and I heard someone say, ‘He shoot him,” then I looked and the bullet grazed my shoulder and went into my lungs, and ricocheted through my body.”
During cross-examination, defence attorney Jonathon Hughes pressed the complainant for clarity on when he first saw the gun and when he got shot.
“You spoke to the police about the incident, and gave evidence, but never before have you mentioned how you got shot,” said Hughes. “Why did you not think before to tell the police that you got shot from behind the plyboard?”
After a brief pause, the complainant responded that until that point no one had asked him to explain the exact circumstance of his shooting, but since he was being asked now he wanted to explain it clearly.
Hernandez, 22, of George Town, has been charged with one count of attempted murder, and another of possession of an unlicensed firearm. He has denied both charges.
He remains in custody and the trial continues on Wednesday.
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